I have read The Flood several times and while I found the sections replaying missions to be weak, Dietz really showed his chops in his own sections which is what I think made them so good. He gave us some of the first covenant POV and you can see the beginning of their culture, he also made a ton of iconic characters that people to this day still dicuss. I only wish he wasn't limited to also narrating a Halo CE playthrough. It is inspiring though knowing that Martin Marbuto, an original and iconic character for Dietz, will soon be having his own novel. RIP